Diplo Did Not Steal the Beat for Azealia Banks Track

The new Azealia Banks track produced by Diplo has struck a chord with a number of Soundcloud users, who thought the beat was stolen from Dutch producer MasterD, as FACT reported early today. But the allegedly stolen beat for "Fuck Up the Fun", which was posted yesterday to Banks' Soundcloud page, was actually a collaboration between Diplo and MasterD that included a sample of MasterD's "Mad Drumz". The track was originally credited to just Diplo, but that was a mistake. It's now been changed to reflect the collaboration.

MasterD works within the underground sphere of bubbling, a genre that Diplo's Mad Decent label highlighted on a 2008 podcast. "'Mad Drumz' was a staple in my set for years," Diplo wrote in an email to Pitchfork. He hopes the sample "gets kids into bubbling." Mad Decent's imprint Jeffrees will soon issue "It's About to Go Down" from MasterD and another bubbling artist, DJ Shaun-D.

"These guys are my homies," Diplo wrote. "If anyone can really help break these underground movements it's a young artist like Azealia Banks. I'm so excited for her whole party right now. She's not afraid of doing anything and a lot of people are following suit."

As for the song itself, Diplo says it's "still bit of a demo," but hopes it can get an official release, "maybe on [Azealia's] album," though nothing has been confirmed. "She just told me she was gonna put it out like an hour before she uploaded it," he wrote, "That's her style though."